Friday, July 3, 2015

OFF THE WIREagingrebel.com
About six hours into a preliminary hearing yesterday, in the ridiculous racketeering case United States versus Mongols Nation,
in the Ronald Reagan Courthouse in Santa Ana, California, Federal
District Judge David O. Carter smirked at the prosecutors and said, “I
haven’t had a long trial in a long time and I miss it.” The audience
laughed. The prosecutors didn’t. And the disparity between those two
reactions might have been the most telling thing that happened in that
hearing.Mongols Nation seeks to convict a turn of phrase for murder,
drug dealing, sexual promiscuity and conspiracy to stay out of jail.
The point is to steal the Mongols patch and hang it on a wall in the
White House or the Department of Justice or the Smithsonian or
someplace. Prosecutor Steven R. Welk collects gruesome Mongols
memorabilia. Yesterday he confessed to the world that he keeps in his
office the baseball bat with which two Mongols allegedly beat a man to
death. He didn’t reveal whether he ever takes his souvenir out to a
batting cage
Judge Carter, who is smart enough to appreciate irony, seems both amused and surprised by Mongols Nation.
He has just awakened to it, literally. He thought that more than two
years ago he had settled the matter of whether the government can steal
the Mongols Motorcycle Club’s name and patch and every garment and every
photo and every souvenir bandanna and baby onesie tainted by it’s
image. Last week while on vacation he learned about Mongols Nation;
and that he was now presiding over it; and that he would have to study
all weekend to prepare for yesterday’s hearing. Consequently, the look
on his face most of the day was priceless.

Carter

Carter is an interesting judge. He is opinionated and bright. He was a
Marine Corps officer in Vietnam. He mentions the Corps frequently and
he is sympathetic to the idea that many Mongols are veterans. Carter is
now old enough to remember a Marine Corps that was more rough and tumble
than it has become. Which may be why he gives the impression that
during his time in Marine Officer School he must have been hit in the
head by a Drill Instructor with the butt of an M-14 at least twice. And
he seems inclined to think that the prosecutors in the Mongols Nation case might benefit from some of the same experiences that helped shape him.
The day began at 7:30 with a sentencing in which Carter
compassionately tried to convince a man with a drug problem to go and
sin no more. He didn’t send him to jail. Carter told him to become
“somebody his children could be proud of.”

The Mongols Case

Then he moved on to the two main cases in his hands. One is called United States versus Assorted Firearms etc.
which should really just be called the Mongols case because it is a
small part of what everybody understands to be “The Mongols Case.” The
prosecutors have simply shattered that coherent case like frozen salt
water taffy in order to make more work for themselves and to make it
more difficult for their victims to defend themselves.
It is all just one, big case. Walking into any hearing in The Mongols
Case is like walking into Cheers. Everybody knows your name. You know
all of theirs. Assorted Firearms is what is now left after Welk
decided to pilfer cash, motorcycles, firearms and anything else that
might be of value, and that might be lying around loose or buried in the
backyard, from scores of people who were accused of being connected in
some way with the Mongols. Eight people are still contesting the
“forfeiture” of their property seven years after it happened. Yesterday
Carter demanded that prosecutors tell him the “nexus” between the
seizure of the property, now all motorcycles, and criminal activity
“We’re these used to transport drugs? Were they purchased with drug
money?”
Prosecutor Christopher Brunwin pretended not to “remember” and he
promised to find out. The fact of the matter is that the government
seized the motorcycles, firearms, cash and other property from people
who were either framed or never convicted of any crime, because of the
owner’s association with the Mongols. To get their motorcycles back, the
eight victims still contesting this seizure will now have to attend a
five to seven day trial, beginning on April 26.

The Scene

Half the courtroom seats were crowded with Mongols. The other half of
the seats were empty except for John Ciccone, who was the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives case agent on the Mongols
case. Ciccone sat in his lonely corner in the back left of the room and
throughout the day one or another prosecutor or paralegal would scurry
back to him. Together they would strategize, or Ciccone would give them a
name or a context, or they would whisper prayers to their dark lord
Satan or whatever it is that cops and prosecutors do when they talk in
low voices.
Carter has frequently expressed his faith in the judicial efficiency
of “the plea bargaining system” but yesterday he threatened to make all
the lawyers do all their whispering in front of the world’s mass media.
The Mongols defenders are the very experienced Joe Yanny, Elliot H. Min
and a kid named Andrew Viney who might be the most efficient and
informed paralegal in the state. Carter made all the lawyers put their
heads together and talk to one another without stopping until they gave
him a trial date. Ten minutes into the long conference in the middle of
the courtroom Carter finished his first big cup of water for the day and
announced, “whatever date you come up with doesn’t mean I’m available.”
Carter made the lawyers scurry and chatter and told them to be quiet
over and over. Eventually the two legal teams agreed that a trial would
begin on November 10 and there would be a pretrial hearing on November
2. Brunwin told the judge he will need 6 to 8 weeks to present his case
and Yanny thinks the defense will need about another month. That
prompted Carter to observe, for the first of many times yesterday, “and
nobody goes to prison?”

Cranky Old Judge

The judge, who likes plea bargaining because it cuts the cost of
filling our prisons with the bodies our prisons need, if that important
segment of our national economy is to remain vibrant, grumbled that it,
“It would be much more efficient to try this case in Los Angeles. It is
much more expensive to come to Orange County.” Then he repeated,
“Nobody’s going to prison. They already have.”
Long hours of the hearing unfolded like a marathon of a reality television show called Cranky Old Judge.
Carter read through the entire indictment line by line and constantly
forced the prosecutors to tell him who, what and where. Usually the
prosecutors didn’t know. All they seemed to know was their own rhetoric.
And at one point in this long session, members of the audience began
anticipating what Carter was going to say. And they began taunting
Brunwin and Welk with their own whispers of “Where? Where?”
His crankiness aside, Carter is a vast improvement over the previous
judge in the case, the Honorable Otis D. Wright, who seemed to think he
was auditioning for a community theater production of Judge Roy Bean.
When Judge Wright had the case, before he saw the satellite trucks, the
cameras and the microphones coming for him, the government had planned
to convict the word Mongols on the basis of admissions made in coerced
plea agreements during an earlier manifestation of The Mongols Case
called U.S. versus Cavazos et al.
That was the original case, the case from which all the other cases
metastasized. As recently as a month ago, Wright ruled from the bench
multiple times that the plea deals could and would be used to convict
the word Mongols of racketeering. And that if the men who had been
bullied by Brunwin into signing those plea deals tried to repudiate them
they would be charged with perjury.
Wright gives the impression of a very stupid and unthoughtful man who
slid into this Constitutional swamp while drunk. Wright was repeatedly
and openly contemptuous of the Mongols. He eschewed written opinions.
Suddenly he realized that Mongols Nation was about to be a very big deal, as Dred Scott
was a big deal. So a month ago Wright walked into his courtroom for a
pretrial hearing waving a 14-month old defense motion for his recusal
over his head and he announced, “Mr. Yanny you win.” As the trial drew
near Wright realized how much scrutiny he and the entire federal justice
system were about to attract and he wanted to hide.

Flogging The Lawyers

Carter is not afraid. “No plea agreements are coming directly into
court,” Carter warned Brunwin. “Plea agreements don’t just come floating
in.” Carter intends to “put the Mongols nation right in front of the
American people.”
The flogging of the lawyers continued all day. Carter insisted that
they calculate with him “Jurors. Twelve in the box; eighteen
peremptories; eight to ten alternates.” He announced he will have to
send out more than 10,000 summons to get 150 prospective jurors. He
thinks he will need a jury pool of at least 100 people.
This “case starts with conclusions,” Carter lectured Brunwin. “It would prejudice the jury.”
“Who did the Mongols attempt to murder,” he asked about one of the
first counts. “When? Where? What happened? Were people previously
prosecuted. Did anybody go to jail? Who are MG and JS?”
When it became obvious that the cat had stolen Brunwin’s tongue,
Yanny answered for him. “Every individual act has already been
punished.”
“And which judge ruled on these cases?” Carter pulled the indictment
apart like pieces of a bug. “If you are going to make a superseding
indictment make it now.” Over and over Carter told the prosecutors that
whole paragraphs of the indictment were redundant and prejudicial.

Welcome To Law School

Brunwin didn’t handle the law-school style grilling well. His voice shook as Carter hectored him. “I…I…I…don’t…I believe….”
“No,” Carter bullied over and over. “Not what you believe. Yes or no.”
Again and again Carter asked Yanny about discovery – about the
evidence he had or had not gotten from the prosecution so he could
prepare his defense. Yanny told the judge the discovery has come in
three big batches: Two batches of 9,000 and 4,000 pages each and another
big evidence dump of 19,606 pages in April. He told Carter, “There is
more we have asked for.”
“What have you been doing for the last two years,” Carter demanded.
Mostly, what has been happening for the last two years is the
prosecutors and Judge Wright have been sheltering this dying ember of a
case under a rock,
“Who testified,” Carter wanted to know about all the alleged
racketeering acts in the indictment that were lifted whole from the
Cavazos indictment.
“Nobody testified,” Yanny answered.
Carter seems to have an incomplete comprehension of how motorcycle
clubs work and how their counterculture works. All the lawyers presented
him with examples of violence between some Mongols and members of the
Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. Noting the Mongols in the courtroom,
Carter worried that Angels might, for some reason, disrupt the Mongols Nation
trial. At one point he suggested that the defense “Send out a Kumbajah
letter to the Hells Angels warning them, ‘If our patch is threatened so
is yours.’”

Mongols RICO Predicates

The government eventually explained to Carter that their case will
center around a well known list of alleged Mongols atrocities. One was a
shooting at a night club called Nicola’s. As John Ciccone and ATF
Tactical Field Officer Chris Cervantes watched, a Mongol named Denis
Maldonado allegedly shot two street clicque members named Zeus Sanchez
and Marcello Garcy.
There are many instances in which Mongols were convinced by undercover policemen to sell them methamphetamine.
There was an incident in which an ATF asset named Daniel “Coconut
Dan” Horrigan and an ATF source of information named Lars Wilson incited
former Mongols officer Mike Munz to go to Indianapolis to beat a member
of the Sons of Silence. “Why would they do that,” Carter wanted to
know. Brunwin didn’t have an answer.
There was a vicious murder in a bar in Merced involving Mongols.
There was a fatal fight with members of the Hells Angels in Laughlin,
Nevada.
There a nasty brawl involving Mongols at a mixed martial arts fight
in Cabazon, California. In answer to a question from the judge, Yanny
told Carter he had never gotten the video recording of that brawl.
Brunwin replied, as he did over and over about the missing discovery,
“We have given him this your honor.” Maybe Brunwin did and maybe he
didn’t. His track record would indicate that he hadn’t but it hardly
matters if he did. That is the whole point of evidence dumps. The best
place to hide a document or recording is in a big cardboard box
containing tens of thousands of documents and recordings.
“What have you been doing for two years,” Carter asked again. “This is ridiculous.”
The government is accusing the word Mongols of having a sit down with the so-called Eme – the Mexican Mafia. “Who in the Eme
did they meet with,” Carter asked. Brunwin didn’t know. “Was it Chuy,”
Carter who has presided over trials of both Arian Brotherhood and La Eme members wondered.
The government thinks the word Mongols caused Cristopher Ablett to
kill Hells Angel Mark Guardado (about whom Brunwin cares so deeply he
repeatedly refrred to the dead Angel as Matthew Guardado). Brunwin
obviously delighted in describing the details of Guardado’s death.
Ablett was sentenced to life in prison. Brunwin thinks the Mongols
should die.
The government is charging the symbol Mongols with being responsible
for a shooting at a Toys for Tots toy drive sponsored by the Hells
Angels. “Why would they do that,” Carter asked. Brunwin had no clue.
The government is also charging the word Mongols for being
responsible for a brawl in a club on the Sunset Strip called The Tokio
Lounge. A man groped a sister of a Mongol. There were three undercover
ATF agents there. When the man in the bar rudely refused to stop groping
the Mongol’s sister he was badly beaten. As he was beaten, the ATF
agents shouted “nigger” over and over. Brunwin and Welk have used the
insicdent to accuse the Mongols of racism over and over.
“Why did they do this,” Carter asked.
Finally Brunwin had an answer. “Your honor, this is a racist organization.”

Some Drama

After about seven hours, the lawyers and the judge got around to the
key question in this case, a question on which Carter has already ruled.
“What about members who have not been convicted of specific acts, “
Carter asked as Socrates asked. “Is this a slippery slope.” Carter
wanted to know what will happen after they come for the Mongols. He
asked about the Hells Angels. And again he said, “Nobody is going to
jail.”
“There is a lot of jurisprudence here,” Carter said as if he couldn’t
wait to weigh in on it. He invited Yanny to write a motion for
dismissal. He told Brunwin and Welk to be ready to reply. And, he told
everybody he would make his ruling, “in writing, not from the bench.”
The folly of this issue of stealing the patch off the Mongols back
began, according to Carter, when Judge Florence Cooper made a legal
mistake. She acted in error when she allowed the government to start
seizing private property owned by Mongols because she confused the
special kind of trademark used by associations, called a collective
membership mark, with the less protected trademark used by McDonalds,
KFC and Midas Muffler. She made the error because Brunwin and Welk lied
to her. “Judge Cooper was the first to admit that she made a tragic
mistake at the start of this case,” Carter fairly warned the
prosecutors.
And then after having to sit down and be quiet all day the lawyers
couldn’t wait to stand up and argue. A debate spontaneously erupted
between Yanny and Steven R. Welk. Carter smirked and called it “debate
time.” It was the most interesting hour of the day. There was a little
drama in the court. Yanny spoke with emotion and passion. Welk did not.

He Coulda Been A Caligula

Brunwin may exemplify what the political theorist Hannah Arendt
called “the banality of evil” but Welk is something special. Welk is
truly soulless. He coulda been a Caligula. He is self-righteous and
sophistical. His only passion is his own pride.
Welk is outraged that this case, this legal bullying, this running
roughshod over basic American liberties that he has so enjoyed since
October 2008, might have to end some day soon. In 2009, when Judge
Cooper told Welk, Brunwin and the ATF that they had stop stealing
Mongols paraphernalia, Welk accused her of “premature adjudication.” He
tried to accuse Carter of the same thing yesterday for even suggesting
that the judge would consider dismissing the case on Constitutional
grounds. Welk was furious about the prospect of “determining the
forfeitability of the marks before the trial.” He argued that that was
backwards. He seemed to really believe that he should be allowed to
punish the Mongols in court forever and ever until eventually, when they
have no more money to defend themselves, he will win.
“Are you saying the issue can’t be raised on Constitutional grounds,” Carter asked him.
“Yes, Welk answered. It is an astounding point of view for a government prosecutor to not only hold but to admit having.
Welk seems to think the Bill of Rights must be approved on a case by
case basis over and over and over. It is exactly what you would expect
someone who steals from the weak.

Yanny Fights Back

Yanny spontaneously stood up and fought back. He blamed most of the
criminality of which the Mongols have been accused on former club
president Ruben “Doc” Cavazos. “This club was as much a victim of Doc
Cavazos as anybody else,” Yanny growled.
Cavazos was expelled from the club in October 2008. He was certainly
cooperating with federal police after his expulsion. He may have been
cooperating with federal police before then. He was certainly
manipulated by undercover agents for some months or years before that.
His International Sergeant at Arms, for example, was working for the
ATF. Undercover ATF agents appear to have convinced Cavazos to appear in
the production of an episode of Gangland. When a Mongols
chapter president first saw a photo of Mongols prospect, and undercover
ATF agent, Darrin Kozlowski posing as an undercover Vago in Billy
Queen’s book Under And Alone, Cavazos’ son Ruben, Jr. told the
chapter president that Kozlowski had “already done more for the club”
that half the members. Doc spent the first two years of his
incarceration debriefing in the basement of the Montebello, California
police station and he attempted to give the club’s trademarks to the
government as if they were his personal property.
The hidden, decade long, low intensity war between the Mongols and
the government shows no signs of abating. “There’s not a weekend that
goes by,” Yanny said pointing at the Mongols in the audience, “that
these guys aren’t harassed by federal agents. That’s why it’s
appropriate to look at the Constitutional issues first. Stop wasting
taxpayer dollars,” he snapped at Welk. “Stop wasting the dollars of
these decent men! This club is guilty of nothing except being. It’s time
to put an end to this stuff! This is a frivolous prosecution by guys
who have unlimited funds!”
The national press already thinks this is a big case. They don’t yet know how big. This is a death match.

Death Match

Yanny has planned for a year and a half to force the government to
pay for the Mongols legal defense under the authorization of a 1997
statute called the Hyde Amendment. It allows federal courts to award
attorney’s fees and court costs to criminal defendants “where the court
finds that the position of the United States was ‘vexatious, frivolous,
or in bad faith.’” Under the Hyde Amendment, the money for the Mongols
defense would come out of the Department of Justice budget. Carter has
already made such an award in a related case called Ramon Rivera v. Ronnie Carter et al., in which a Mongols patch holder in San Diego sued the government for the right to wear his patch.
But the stakes are now much higher than that for Brunwin and Welk
personally. Yanny thinks the prosecutors conduct in their ten year long
pursuit of the Mongols has been so outrageous that a section of the law
titled 28 U.S.C. section 1927 might apply to them. That section
reads, “Any attorney or other person admitted to conduct cases in any
court of the United States or any Territory thereof who so multiplies
the proceedings in any case unreasonably and vexatiously may be required
by the court to satisfy personally the excess costs, expenses, and
attorneys’ fees reasonably incurred because of such conduct.”
In other words, if Brunwin and Welk lose this case they may not
merely be compelled to submit a bill to Washington. They may have to
personally pay Yanny’s legal bills. These are the two men who intend to
bludgeon the Mongols out of existence with an obscenely expensive, three
month long trial.
“I am the punishment of God,” Genghis Khan is remembered to have
said. “If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a
punishment like me upon you.”